Burning Ambitions

A Tree, A Cart, and Breakfast With the Family

Guan reveals he must deliver a letter to the Duke. Black goes off to get a wagon for the trip. Mayor Tom remembers Leif as acting weird and eves-dropping.

At the hunting lodge, Leif finds Daniel Bronzewing, another poacher. He has been hauled (all pleasant like) to the lodge for an audience with the Duke. Leif scrubs himself, gets new peasant clothes, and prepares for breakfast and an audience.

Aerious decides that the place of his big sermon, the Rise of the Strong Tree, is the perfect site for his new chapel shrine. The Paravist’s picked the wrong site in Pulder to build their chapel and aerie to honor the Great Wing. The Strong Tree is the most sacred place closest to Pulder. To secure the land, Aerious meets with Mayor Merton to get the land. The property was owned by Jade’s husband but the inheritance is in question. If it is not resolved, the Duke becomes the owner. LOTS of paper work is required. Mayor Tom and Aerious are then met by Black and Elder Red Falcon with a cart. A conversation ensued on the why’s and wherefore’s of going on the snow deer expedition. Aerious explains that there is a special tree where the Paravist SHOULD have built their church; they made a mistake. Also, this is the same tree under which Jim slept before his (minor) epiphany.

Leif goes into breakfast. The Duke tells him there are prophesies that say the duchy will fall if Snow Deer return. Oh.. and the Duke will make Leif LEGITIMATE if Leif keeps the Snow deer OUT of the duchy. The Paravists spoke the prophesy. Leif also met his step-sister, Elena.

SPLIT THE PARTY!!!!!

Jeff was absent last week so Bill starts off with him.

The Aveist wants to start a his own flock. He uses oratory to try and drum them up. HIs witnessing is effective enough to attract 3 new would-be congregants. They agree to meet him the next morning for his sunrise service.

Three men approach Jim, Black and Leif. It is the Duke’s Seneshal but Leif mistakes him for the game warden. As it turns out, Leif still had a poached game bird. Leif tried to pass the bird to Black but was spotted by both Black and the Seneshal. As it turns out, the Duke wishes to speak with Leif. Both Jim and Black wanted to join Leif but the Seneshal convinced them to stay behind… with enough money to get drunk. Leif joins the Seneshal as they ride out of town up to the Duke’s hunting lodge.

Jim’s step-father, Raptor Joseph Vines, shows up and reveals that Jim’s mother, Violet, is sick and went was sent to the Aerie to try and be healed. There is a physical confrontation between to the two men. Afterwards, Aerious sees the step-father leave, and enters the tavern to find Jim still sitting at the table with the overturned chair. The old friends begin drinking together.

Black sees Leif ride off and calls his wolf. He is JUST about ready to cut across the Duke’s land to head off the Seneshal’s party when he sees a white cloaked person. That person was from Eagle Downs and he says the WHITE deer are quite common near his village. He pulls the guy off to buy him a drink.

Meanwhile, back in the bar, Aerious tells Jim all about the Aerie and the Paravist practice of rewarding Raptors for referring followers of means to the Aerie for treatment. Thus, Raptor Vines not only took over Violet’s estate, he was also giving a kickback from the Paravists. This make him angrier. In exchange for confronting JIm’s step-dad regarding the treatment of Jim’s mother, Aerious convinces JIm to join him for morning services.

Jade eventually ditches her mother in law and finds Black conversing with a man in a white cloak. Jade attempts to seduce Guan Farlington. Against all odds, she succeeds!

Leif makes it to the Lodge and is set up in the stables with the promise of a bath and breakfast in the morning.

The next day, Aerious wakes JIm at the meeting and preaches to Jim and the 3 congregants. As he does so, hundreds of song birds appear. He preaches so well that he cracks Jim’s stone heart. Although Jim still dislikes religion, some of what Aerious says makes sense…The other trio of followers are sent to find more converts.

How Much Is That Snow Deer In The Window?

Jeff couldn’t make the game so everyone hastily removed religious beliefs and tailored them for the evening.

The Mayor bragged on the hunting skills of Black. Jade looks for snow deer rumors. Leif looks to speak with the Mayor. Jim finds him and starts telling the story of Berry Pants!! Jim convinces us that an incident that happened to Jim ACTUALLY happened to the Mayor. There are questions on THAT story.

We concoct a scheme to find breeding pairs of snow deer, re-establish the herd, and monetize them. Of course, Jim is looking forward to stealing them.

Elder Red Falcon pulled the mayor aside to let him know that Leif has been accused of poaching (probably by Elder Crow. Leif attempted to sneak up and spy on the two but was caught. The two men have not openly let Leif know he was spotted. And Leif has NO idea what was discussed let alone that he was spotted.

The Duke arrives. Messes up the benediction. And leaves.

We convince the mayor to circle up a groomsman that knows about the Duke and Snow Deer. He finds Kurt who has never seen the Snow Deer with the Duke.

Out of the swirling mass of campaign ideas in my head, I’d like to put forward this;

You are all from the same peasant village. Bright young minds filled with impossible dreams. While you all grew up here together, some of you might have left to explore the world to some small extent. But now you have all come home, at this opportune moment, to seek to implement your (singular) great plan with the help of your childhood friends (you hope).

For this, I would like your characters to have a grand Belief to pursue. Whether to become Great (with power, prestige, knowledge, or somesuch), or Solving a Great Dilemma (mystery, crisis, trouble, etc.), or some other equally Epic Personal Task that could take your character months, years, or even decades to accomplish. This will give us six disparate major plot threads to spin our story upon.

On top of that you’ll each have two more* Beliefs* to poke at each other, or the situation at hand, or further define your characters. And don’t forget, you can tack on an addendum to your grand* Belief* to focus on an intermediate step on your way to the big one (like; I will become/achieve/do this great thing, and I will start with this first step here.)

I like this campaign idea because it potentially explores the attempt to rise to (and maybe fall from) greatness from humble beginnings. And the power (and danger) of friendship.

Campaign Details;

You are all from the same peasant village. That’s it. That’s everything, so far.

We will use Character Burning to further define the world (as needed). Your Beliefs, Lifepaths, Relationships, Affiliations and Reputations will all leave a mark on the world. (If you take Sailor, there is a Sea. If you take a lead to a City lifepath, there is a city over that way. And so forth.)

Character Burning Details;

Must start with Born Peasant, or Villager Born.
Lifepath Limit is three (3)
Stat Cap is five (5)
Skill Cap is four (4)
Attributes are derived as normal. (no inherent cap)